Ready. Aim. Art! How should a museum mark the occasion when it's about to shut its doors for renovation? The Art Gallery of Ontario thinks it knows: "Leading with an elite squad of eight paintball marks-people, the Argentinean-born artist [Fabian Marcaccio] is coating part of the east and west walls of the AGO's George Weston Hall tonight for 30 minutes starting at 9:15 p.m. with an impressionistic palette of blues, whites and magentas. The instant painting ends at 9:45 p.m. But it will still be drying and fading when the space closes permanently to make way for architect Frank Gehry's massive reconstruction of the entire gallery." The public is invited, and the whole gooey spectacle will be accompanied by an original score for trumpets and percussion. Toronto Star 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 7:06 am
Cleveland Museum To Make The City Its Gallery The Cleveland Museum of Art's decision to close many of its galleries over the next three years as it readies for a major expansion is a risky one, but the museum is hoping to stay visible in the city through a program of neighborhood events. "While the museum plans to hold off-site programs, concerts and performances through the fall and winter, it has no specific information yet on where those events will take place." The $258 million expansion will require the entire museum to be closed for almost two years. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 6:56 am
Tate Modern And London's Artworld Dominance What has Tate Modern meant to London in its five years? "Today London is acknowledged to be the centre of the art world, a role that once belonged to Paris and then New York. No other city comes near us for the number and quality of its exhibitions, contemporary art galleries, and important young artists. Maybe all that isn't entirely due to the existence of Tate Modern, but a lot of it is." The Telegraph (UK) 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 6:26 pm
King Tut In The Scanner Thanks to computer scanning technology, we've now got a pretty good idea what King Tut looked like. "Three teams of scientists have created the first facial reconstructions of King Tutankhamun based on CT scans of his mummy. The images are strikingly similar both to each other and to ancient portraits of the boy pharaoh, including his depiction on the famed golden mask he wore into the crypt." Wired 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 6:16 pm
Alberta Museum Gets $150 Million Overhaul Alberta's provincial music is to get a $150 million update and a new name in honor of the Canadian province's 100th anniversary. "The money, to be spent over the next five years, will be used to update and renew the museum, which will also be christened with a new name – the Royal Alberta Museum – when the Queen visits Alberta later this month." CBC 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 5:12 pm
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Concessions In Columbus The musicians of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra have agreed to restructure their contract and take a massive pay cut in an attempt to keep the orgaization afloat financially. Individual musicians would see their salaries drop between $22,261 and $26,713 under the terms of the new agreement, which was reached after the CSO's board refused to announce the next season without major changes to the contract. Cincinnati Post (AP) 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 5:43 am
Florida Orchestra Pleads For More Civic Funding The Florida Orchestra is asking its home city of St. Petersburg to triple its contribution to the orchestra, to $221,000. The request comes as the orchestra prepares to move to a local church for a year as its hall is being renovated. "But the request could be a difficult one for the City Council's three-member budget committee... The committee also has to weigh requests from at least 10 other agencies, who want a piece of the $797,000 available for fiscal year 2006, which starts Oct. 1. The orchestra is competing with the Festival of States, which wants $100,000; the Pier Aquarium, which wants $92,000; and the Tennis Foundation of St. Petersburg, which wants $60,000." St. Petersburg Times (FL) 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 5:37 am
Legacy Of An Orchestra Executive Joe Kluger's departure from the executive directorship of the Philadelphia Orchestra will leave a large void not only in Philadelphia, but in the American orchestra scene writ large. For better or for worse, Kluger was a major player on the national scene, and he led his orchestra through some of its most tumultuous years, including a bitter strike in 1996. The orchestra's musicians don't seem terribly sorry to see him go, but the ensemble's board chair points out that he loved the ensemble enough to take a far lower salary than his peers in the industry. A search for Kluger's replacement will commence immediately. Philadelphia Inquirer 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 5:12 am
Aussie Orchestras Await Funding Fate Will Australian states agree to demands by the federal government in order to qualify for funding for orchestras? "Only South Australia's Government has confirmed it will meet the new benchmarks, ensuring the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's financial future. The federal funding also could be withheld if orchestras baulk at implementing industrial relations reforms recommended in businessman James Strong's review - but that is not expected." Sydney Morning Herald 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 6:49 pm
Daniel's ENO Reign: Not Happy Paul Daniel's reign at English national Opera has not been a happy one, writes Rupert Christiansen. "Insiders reported that his relationship with the orchestra never really coalesced. Daniel has a Blairish desire to be thought a cool kind of a guy, but fiddlers and flautists are not so easily fooled, and Daniel never earned the respect that another of his predecessors, Mark Elder (a far steelier character), had commanded as music director in the 1980s. But this is less than half the story..." The Telegraph (UK) 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 6:31 pm
Stearns: Garner Opera Works Michigan Opera Theatre created a lot of buzz about its Richard Danielpour/Toni Morrison opera "Margaret Garner", writes David Stearns. "It'll do fine (I think). Dramaturgical lapses are there, but the strengths of Margaret Garner are so considerable and wide-ranging that the piece is legitimately destined to make new friends for opera without alienating old ones." Philadelphia Inquirer 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 5:17 pm
Philadelphia Orchestra President Steps Down Joe Kluger is stepping down as president of the Philadelphia Orchestra after 16 years. "Kluger's tenure makes him the second-longest current chief of a major American orchestra (after Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra president Steven Monder), according to the American Symphony Orchestra League. Kluger, 50, said that he will take on a consulting role with Adrian Ellis, whose firm, AEA Consulting, specializes in facilities and operational issues for arts groups. Kluger said that he does not know if that will be a short- or long-term step in his career." Philadelphia Orchestra 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 5:15 pm
The Best In UK Classical? What (and who) was best in Brish classical music this year? The Royal Philharmonic Society makes its annual awards... BBC 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 5:09 pm
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Insert Your Own Wildly Offensive Headline Here The Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld the indecent exposure conviction of a public access TV host whose show featured a segment in which his exposed penis appeared to tell jokes to the camera. The host claimed that the segment constituted free expression, but the court disagreed, saying that there is a noticable difference between nudity in serious films and a crass public access show. The host intends to appeal to the State Supreme Court. Detroit Free Press 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 6:34 am
SPAC To Grow A New Board From Scratch As part of its attempt to dig out from under a wave of bad publicity and accusations of fiscal irresponsibility, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) is junking its entire board and starting fresh. The board unanimously resigned last week, and the new roster includes only four members with previous SPAC board experience. SPAC came under fire last year after dropping New York City Ballet from its summer schedule, and was subsequently the subject of a scathing audit which accused the board of willful mismanagement. The Saratogian (NY) 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 5:31 am
Louisville To Consolidate Arts Funding "Louisville's four key performing-arts groups would get a total of nearly $2 million a year to erase their recurring budget deficits during the next three years under a new plan to combine city, state and private funding. The plan is part of a broader Cultural Blueprint that has just been completed after nearly two years of gathering data in Louisville and Southern Indiana. The intent was to get detailed information on how all regional arts groups could best respond to the market. Much of the effort focuses on the Louisville Orchestra, Kentucky Opera, the Louisville Ballet and Actors Theatre of Louisville -- organizations that have largely defined the city's national and international arts reputation but have struggled to balance their budgets." Louisville Courier-Journal 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 5:25 am
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The Motherlode Of Hamlet (Online) It's taken a team of scholars 10 years to "compile every piece of scholarship and criticism about Shakespeare's Hamlet, and then to link it, line by line, to the text in an online database. The mammoth project, supported by some $1-million in grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, is nearing completion -- although editors plan to add to it as they find more material." Chronicle of Higher Education 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 5:30 pm
Doubt Wins NY Drama Critics Award "Doubt by John Patrick Shanley today won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best play of the 2004-2005 season. The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh received the award for best foreign play. No award was given for best musical." About Last Night (AJBlogs) 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 5:22 pm
UK's Regional Theatre Movement It wasn't too long ago that British theatre meant London's West End. No more. "Regional theatre is becoming bigger, bolder and better, led by some extremely talented artistic directors, making use of the extra £25m pumped into regional theatre as a result of the Arts Council Theatre Review. Over the last few years, visionary artistic directors working at regional theatres have actually set the agenda for national theatre as a whole, and have done so with huge box office success." Oxford Student 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 5:21 pm
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The Googlization Of Books - Europe's Not Happy Why are the French so ticked off that Google plans to digitize libraries? "To some, the outcry smacked of just another case of misplaced Gallic pride; after all, Google plans to include French and other non-English books in its literary database. But a rapid response from bureaucrats in The Hague has sent a signal that the whole continent now sees Google as a threat. Last week, four months after Google's announcement, the European Commission, which represents 25 countries, pledged 96 million euros to digitize all of the books from more than 20 of Europe's most pre-eminent libraries before America gets there first." Wired 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 6:14 pm
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Cannes Off To A Strange Start The traditional opening press conference at the Cannes Film Festival was not the usual affair this year. The jury president's English was sketchy enough to leave everyone wondering what he was talking about, and author Toni Morrison responded to questions about what she was doing on a film jury by declaring her judgment "infallible." All in all, no one seemed quite sure what was going on, but there did seem to be a general agreement that "democracy is very different from film." Whatever that means. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 6:40 am
Innovating Film Channel "Suppose you run a cable channel dedicated to showing art house films. You wake up one day and realize that the independent film industry isn't making that many truly independent films anymore. You notice your audience is as fervent about video as it is about film. You sense viewers are no longer satisfied with your selecting the film lineup; they want to do it themselves. If you're the Independent Film Channel, you've clearly got some identity issues. Over the last year, IFC has faced up to the challenge with an overhaul centered on increased original programming, along with aggressive media and educational campaigns catering to its small but avid and digitally hip audience." Chicago Tribune 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 6:27 am
Big City, Little Movies In so many ways,New York dominates the American cultural landscape, but usually, to make it big there, you've got to be pretty big yourself. But a new generation of filmmakers are making a name for themselves in the Big Apple by going small. "Culturally vibrant, if economically still fragile, New York has quietly been emerging as the world's primary clearinghouse for a fast-expanding pool of very-low-budget movies. A ragtag posse of former college film series promoters, ex-gofers at major studios and chronically underfinanced filmmakers - their way paved by the low costs and relative ease of digital technology - has coalesced here into a commercial brokerage and cinematic salon devoted largely to the 'little' film." The New York Times 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 6:04 am
Yahoo! Let's Compete With Ourselves! Internet giant Yahoo! acquired online download service MusicMatch last year for $160 million in what was considered something of a coup for the company, which had been battered by the rise of Google. So why has Yahoo! suddenly launched its own online music service in direct competition with MusicMatch? Wired 05/12/05
Posted: 05/12/2005 5:59 am
How They're Luring You To The Movies With the entertainment landscape getting more and more crowded, and movie ticket sales sagging, how do you get people out to see your movies in the theatre? You get creative... NPR 05/11/05
Posted: 05/11/2005 5:33 pm
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